Matt Hancock has not ruled out tighter lockdown restrictions following the emergence of a new South Africa strain of coronavirus.
Speaking at Monday's Downing Street press conference, the Health Secretary said 'further measures' were always possible, but added a 'very strong set of rules' were already in place.
Mr Hancock had earlier said the UK has now identified 105 cases of the South Africa variant, 11 of which have no links to international travel.
He said that while there is no evidence the South Africa strain is more deadly, 'we need to come down on it hard' and listed the postcodes where the mutation had been found.
He said: "We are always looking at what we need to do. There is already a national lockdown in place that says you should not travel unless it's absolutely necessary and that you should stay local.
"We expect people to adhere to that everywhere, but in particular in the postcodes I've set out where people should stay at home unless they absolutely have to leave.
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"Anybody even thinking about stretching the rules in those areas must not.
"Of course further measures are always there but we already have a very strong set of rules, indeed very strong laws, in place against people travelling unnecessarily."
Mr Hancock also said the UK is 'surging' extra testing into the areas where the new variant has been found and going door to door to conduct the testing.
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